Webb Leads Cougar Sweep of Lobos

ALBUQUERQUE -- Playing in place of a hobbling Carrie Bowers, redshirt freshman middle blocker Erin Webb came off the bench to spark the BYU women's volleyball team as it swept past New Mexico 30-25, 30-19, 30-22 Friday night at Johnson Arena. The Cougars evened their Mountain West Conference record at 5-5 and stand 10-14 overall, while New Mexico fell to 2-7, 7-15.

"We flat out played well tonight," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "With Carrie sitting out combined with all the injuries we have there wasn't a lot of room for error. But we played well as a team and everybody contributed to the win."

Bowers, hampered by two stress fractures to her feet all season, had played in every game for the Cougars this year but she is hoping rest will alleviate the pain, as BYU looks to host Utah and Colorado State in the coming weeks. The versatile Webb has effectively stepped into the Cougar lineup as it has been depleted with injury this season, and she came through again as she in leading BYU's defensive effort with eight blocks, tying a career high. She also put down nine kills on a career best .444 hitting.

BYU started the match strong in the first game as it hit .324 by putting down 18 kills.

The second game was a struggle for the Cougars as they committed eight attack errors in hitting .200, but the BYU defense smothered the Lobo offense hold them to seven kills on -.207 hitting, while forcing them to commit 13 service errors.

In game three, BYU came out determined to finish strong and racked up 20 kills on a match-high .515 hitting percentage.

On the night BYU held the edge in every major statistical category. The Cougars outblocked the Lobos 12 to three and held a 52-35 kills advantage and outhit them .350-.061.

True freshman Kim Wilson continues to pace the Cougars as she recorded a match-high 14 kills on .346 hitting to go with three digs and two blocks. After Cougar offensive leader April Varner went down with an injury Oct. 23, Wilson has accelerated her play and has led BYU in kills in each of its last three matches.

Junior setter Karina Puikkonen had another solid overall night as she tossed up a match-high 41 assists to go with six blocks and three digs. She also had seven kills with no attack errors to hit .875.

Lindsey Metcalf finished with 11 kills on the night and hit .444 while putting up a match-highs with seven digs and two aces. Laura Nielsen continues to be a model of effective consistency as she hit .500 while putting down seven kills.

New Mexico was led by Chelsea Sondrup, who paced the Lobos with seven kills on a team-high .389 hitting.

"It was a total team effort tonight," Lamb said. "We made a few too many service errors, but I can't complain. Everything seemed to go our way tonight."

The Cougars improve to 52-7 all-time against the Lobos. BYU also improves its record to a perfect 5-0 when hitting over .300 as a team.

BYU will conclude its regular season road schedule with a visit to Colorado Springs to take on Air Force Saturday at 7 p.m.

                              Volleyball Box Score
           BYU Cougars vs NEW MEXICO (11/01/02 at Albuquerque, N.M.)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  3|  7   0   8  .875| 41|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  6  0|  0
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  3| 11   4  23  .304|  0|  2   1|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  0
 10 WEBB, Erin..........  3|  9   1  18  .444|  0|  0   3|  1|  3| 0  8  0|  0
 15 WILSON, Kimberly....  3| 14   5  26  .346|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 1  1  2|  0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  3|  0   0   1  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  3|  7   2  10  .500|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 5  CASTILLO, Sahara....  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  1   3|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 7  LARSON, Allison.....  3|  4   4  13  .000|  0|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 52  17 100  .350| 44|  3  13|  1| 27| 1 22  2|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  6  37  .324   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  8  30  .200   BYU Cougars......... 30 30 30  10-14, 5-5 MWC
   3  20  3  33  .515   NEW MEXICO.......... 25 19 22  7-15, 2-7 MWC
    NEW MEXICO             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  REINES, Anna........  3|  5   5  20  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 5  MEIHACK, Monica.....  3|  3   5  10 -.200| 29|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  1
 6  SHIELDS, Vanessa....  3|  6   4  17  .118|  2|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 8  SONDRUP, Chelsea....  3|  7   0  18  .389|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 11 MASTEN, Staci.......  3|  8  10  23 -.087|  0|  1   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 13 KAVENY, Cayse.......  3|  6   4  10  .200|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  1  1|  0
 7  BURKE, Adah.........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 10 BURNS, Blaire.......  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 15 SANCHEZ, Andrea.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 35  29  99  .061| 32|  1   3|  3| 23| 1  4  2|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 3.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  8  33  .182   Site: Albuquerque, N.M. (Johnson Arena)
   2   7 13  29 -.207   Date: 11/01/02       Attend: 314   Time: 1:21
   3  14  8  37  .162   Referees: Tana Martin, Amer Chand